The following questions are designed to deepen understanding of “The Gulch Run Gangster” by encouraging critical thinking through engagement with the story’s themes, characters, and narrative techniques. Parents and teachers are invited to use the questions for guided discussions with their students or as topics for essays. By working through the questions, readers will gain a greater appreciation for the story and enhance their literary analysis skills.
A. The Parents
- At the beginning of the story, Mama says, “It’s a mercy the constable died quick.” What does she mean?
- Why does Jake tell Anna that their mother doesn’t mean what she says?
- The children believe that their mother has broken the tenth commandment, which forbids coveting. Why? Are they right?
- When the children return home, Pa’s voice is “taut as the day he asked Doc McLeod how long.” How long for what? And how does the context help answer that question?
- After Jake tells his mother what happened at the train tracks, she says “a half-cocked mercy” is better than no mercy at all. What does she mean by that?
- Does her attitude about mercy change by the end of the story? If so, why? What does she first believe, and what do her final words reveal?
B. The Journey
- Anna refuses to go home after school. Why?
- Jake remembers a time when his sister was fearless, but now her fears are many. What has changed? What does she fear most?
- When Jake tells Anna yet again to go home, she replies, “I ain’t going with you. And I ain’t going back.” How does Anna’s reply tie into the bigger picture?
- How does the encounter with the spider play into the story? What does it reveal about Jake? About Anna?
- After the altercation at the train tracks, the children run back to the tree fort and not straight home. Why?
- How does the tree fort represent the differing positions Jake and Anna find themselves in during their mother’s illness?
C. The Autumn Rose
- What is an autumn rose? What does it signify to Anna?
- Anna picks up two leaves that she cannot pry apart. They tear but remain stuck together. What does this detail represent?
- What prompted Anna to finally divulge to Jake why she was collecting leaves?
- Throughout the story, Anna insists she needs a red leaf despite having several already tucked into her pinafore pocket. And every red leaf Jake offers her, she rejects. Why must she have a certain red leaf? Why won’t she accept the ones Jake offers?
- Does Anna ever get her red leaf? How?
- What does the acquired red leaf signify?
D. The Brawl
- Anna calls Frankie Roberts a gangster. Is he?
- Jake believes the man on the tracks is a tramp, “a drifter, hopping freight trains to look for work, or avoid it.” Is he?
- At what point did you know the tramp on the tracks to be Frankie Roberts?
- Is Jake being brave or foolish when he tries to rescue Frankie Roberts from the train tracks?
- When Jake considers “that God’s mercy didn’t spare the godly,” he is thinking of his mother. Yet he believes she has broken the tenth commandment. How does he reconcile the opposing ideas—or does he?
- Jake orders Anna to wait behind the campfire or to get on home. What did you think she would do?
- How would you describe the relationship between Frankie Roberts and Patches?
- Why does Frankie Roberts fight Jake? Does he want to kill him?
- Anna discovers Frankie Roberts’s gun hidden in the bedroll. What realization motivates her to take it? Was the decision difficult for her? Was she brave or foolish?
- Jake believes Anna’s third shot will hit Frankie Roberts. But by either gunshot or the oncoming train, Frankie Roberts’s life is in jeopardy. Why is it so important to Jake that Anna not shoot him?
- If Anna’s third shot had not scared Frankie Roberts and Patches off the tracks, what do you think Jake would have done? Would he have tried once more to force Frankie Roberts off, putting both their lives in peril as the train approached? Would he have given up helping Frankie Roberts and attempted to save himself? What about Anna? What was Jake’s responsibility to her?